This study examines the construction of national identity in the First World War as exemplified by representative French war novels. Central to the textual interpretation is the question of the connection between identity and (self-)demarcation. It transpires that the function of the image of the enemy as a constitutive factor in identity formation needs to be relativized. With reference to the hitherto neglected reception of war literature, it is possible to explain the special status accorded by the French public to writers active at the war front, who are compared here for the first time with civilian writers.